Man limps away from fatal crash scene

Woken by the sound of crunching metal, Jason Cordes ran down the road to find a man limping away from the wreckage of two cars.

Both he and Denise Cordes heard the sound of the fatal crash in Mangateparu about 5.40am on Wednesday last week.

The early-morning smash on the intersection of Cameron and Cross roads killed an 18-year-old man from Thames and left two injured.

‘‘There was a large impact and we couldn’t figure out what it was,’’ Jason Cordes said.

‘‘Turns out it was a head on collision so all the lights from both vehicles were knocked out on impact.’’

Cordes ran down to the road to the crash about 100 metres from the house to find two cars - a black Ford and silver people mover had collided head on.

Both vehicles ended up on the side of a road in a ditch with major damage.

‘‘The person driving [the silver station wagon] had no pulse and appeared to be deceased on impact.’’

Another man - the driver of a black Ford - was limping along the road.

The man said he had come around the corner and alleged the silver vehicle had crossed the centreline, Cordes said.

Cordes checked the silver vehicle for any other passengers, but it appeared there was only the driver.

‘‘I didn’t check the back of the black car because the driver had just got out of the vehicle and asked if there were any children in the other car.’’

Cordes said the man was sore and limping along the road.

‘‘I queried whether he should be walking around - he was coherent but clearly in shock.’’

Cordes said the high impact had smashed the front bonnet of the silver car.

‘‘It was very, very dark. Cer- tainly that silver car was a huge mess. It was a massive head-on impact. The silver car definitely bore the brunt of it.’’

As a child growing up, Cordes said there used to be accidents every week. These days there was the odd one typically related to speed.

Emergency services were called to the crash scene at 5.52am.

The intersection was closed and diversions were in place.

The Serious Crash Unit were investigating the cause of the incident while next of kin were being informed.